Destin Fishing Trip on Ben Marler's Emmanuel

Dallas and I went on an all-day deep sea fishing trip aboard Captain Ben Marler's party boat, Emmanuel in the mid 1990's when Dal was about 19 years old. After giving Dal a lot of "Come on, it'll be fun" talk the week before the trip, he finally agreed. Dallas was not an early riser at the time (what 19 year old is?), but he made it to the Destin Harbor in time to hear Capt Ben Marler give about a 20 minute lesson on how to fish based on bible scripture. Capt Marler also let everyone know there was no swearing allowed aboard the Emmanuel. I remember thinking this seemed a bit different for a boat captain. As Capt Marler wrapped it up, he had a prayer for us and the trip. Then he took the helm and got us underway. We went out the Destin East Pass and out into a mostly calm Gulf of Mexico. The Emmanuel was nice and seemed pretty new. It had an unusual catamaran hull and rode nice. Dallas and I went to the top observation deck and enjoyed the view. We got a bite to eat and had some good conversations, mostly catching up on my time in Korea, what he was doing, college, jobs and such. I'm sure he wasn't telling me the good stuff as I probably wasn't cool enough to hear it, me being of advanced age :-) A little while later Capt Marler got us to some good fishing spots several miles offshore. We started catching snapper and some triggerfish right off the bat. The fishing lesson paid off as most everyone was catching fish and not spending time untangling their lines. Capt Marler didn't stay long at any spot and soon we'd get the order to reel up our lines as he headed off to the next fishing hole. We were having a lot of fun getting them on line and reeling them up. After several holes and a growing ice box of fish Dallas said he was a bit tired, so he went inside and to my astonishment and amusement... took a nap (crazy kid!). I plugged away as I had "Snapper Fever" by that point and nothing was going to keep me from getting my ticket price back and more in "Red Gold". After lunch Dal returned to the quest and we caught quite a few more fish. We finally ran out of fishing time and the Emmanuel started heading back in for Destin Harbor. Dal and I went back on the top deck, talked a bit more and took a few pictures. As we got close to shore, the deckhands got each person's catch on stringers and hung them up on the sides on the boat for everyone to see as we made our way back through the pass and into the Emmanuel's spot in the harbor. We didn't have the biggest stringers on the boat, but they were still impressive for us. We took proud pictures of our haul before we said goodbye and went home. Dal gave me a hug before he left. I am so glad I found the photos from the trip and am now able to enjoy and share them along with this story. It was a wonderful day with Dal.P.S.- Dal gave me his fish. What a generous and fine young man... or probably 19 yr-olds don't like to clean fish :-) Dal's Uncle Mack(Max Gray)